Physical store locations provide customers with an opportunity to handle a tangible, physical item, consult with employees about recommendations or alternatives, and interact with other customers. A physical retail location may provide a better customer experience in some ways than an electronic marketplace.
However, electronic marketplaces have an ability to track a large amount of information about every selection or action of a user, and then create a tailored electronic shopping experience that uses this information. For example, electronic marketplaces often provide recommendations to users after the electronic marketplace gathers enough information about a user to generate the recommendations. Electronic marketplaces also can quickly provide product information or other data to users upon request or in response to an event. Users can listen to sample clips of songs, view product specifications, and access user reviews while interacting with many different electronic marketplaces. Although some of these types of information may be available in a physical store location, albeit in different forms, it is often infrequently provided to shoppers due to cumbersome means of distribution or other obstacles of delivery to or access by the shoppers.